Ha Neul’s POV

It’s been a few days since that irritating autograph session and Hyo Rin had returned to being my best friend again. (I didn’t like holding grudges; too tiring…) Besides, she was my only friend and I needed her to discuss my problems such as finding a part time job or our annoying Profs and their ridiculous amount of homework.

I had been looking for a part time job for about a year now. But the economy was bad and I didn’t want to take just any job. So, as of now, I was still jobless.

It was the last lecture of the day and the Prof was discussing advanced search algorithms (but no one was really listening) while we were talking about what to do afterwards.

“Hey, I came across an ad at a cute café this morning. They’re looking for a waitress…” Hyo Rin whispered. “Do you want to go and check it out?”

“Uh, I don’t know…” I said carefully. “You know, serving people is not really my thing…”

“I know. But you can’t say for sure unless you’ve tried, can you?”

“Yeah, but still…” I frowned.

“Oh, come on! Just try it once?” Hyo Rin tried to convince me.

But I was saved by my vibrating cell phone; it was my mother, as usual not paying attention to whether I was in a lecture or not.

I sighed and picked up. “Hi, mom.”

“Hi, Ha Neul. You didn’t, by any chance, forget that uncle Soo Jong is coming over for dinner tonight, did you?”

“I’m still in a lecture, mom!” I whispered.

“Oops, sorry. But just remember to hurry home and help me! Bye!” She said and hung up. Well, at least, that saves me the trip to the café…

So, when the lecture ended I quickly apologised to Hyo Rin, said goodbye and headed home. My mom was always like that; guests were kings. Even if it were the boyfriend of my cat Shil Hye, she’d still prepare a feast! And of course everyone had to help her do so.

So naturally, as soon as I got home I was showered with tasks that still needed to be done. Like setting up the tableware, vacuum-clean the floor, wash the rice and run to the next food marked to buy a new water melon because the one we had was not good enough, and so on.

But finally the doorbell rang and I could escape by keeping uncle Soo Jong company. He was my mother’s younger brother and I really liked him. He was quite smart and he had an interesting job. He was the person in charge of all the technical stuff at his company. So we always had a lot of intriguing things to talk about.

Apparently, they got a new software recently. One, which he’s not particularly fond of as it is too complex for normal people to understand and use it intuitively. Especially the installation.

“I’ll have to teach every single person who’ll ever use that software; so basically everyone!” He complained. “Do I look like I have that much free time?!”

I shook my head and smiled. He certainly had enough work to do because my mom was always worried that he’d overwork himself.

“You know, there was nothing wrong with the old software!” He continued. “Okay, then and there, there were some crashes. But what software does not have runtime errors?!”

“None,” I snorted.

“Exactly! But, of course, that was no argument. If the president wants a new software, a new software it is! Even if it’s more work than merit!”

“So, the software has a useless interface and no beneficial applications?! Who’d even buy that?”

“No, no! The software as such is actually quite cool,” he said with an excited smile.

I looked at him expectantly.

“Okay. Basically, this software is the tool to manage a gigantic database. A media database. Music, videos, pictures, etc. As well as normal files like docs or schedules. You know what I mean.” I nodded.

“Obviously, there will be a lot of people working in very specific ways with these files. Like editing just the drums in a song or adjusting only the lightning in one frame of an MV. And everyone will want to use her or his own programme. So, this is where the new software comes into the picture: Every member of our company will get an account on the database, I call him Kwang Tae by the way.”

“Um, how did you come up with that name?” I interrupted him.

“Because Coco nearly ripped the contract I signed to purchase this software! And since I feed him Kaytee, I now call the database Kwang Tae because it sounds similar.” (Coco is his parrot. ^^)

“Oh, okay,” I chuckled. “So, they get an account on the database, sorry, Kwang Tae. And then?”

“Right. On their account they will have their schedule, their personal email address with the according contact lists as well as a small partition for their personal documents and programmes. Just the usual.” He paused to get some air and I nodded again.

“And then, we – or rather I – will install the app of this software on the smartphone or tablet of every member of our company. But this is the most tedious part since this stupid app is so damn difficult to install!” My mom gave him reprimanding look for the inappropriate word but we ignored her.

“That really does sound like a lot of work,” I said sympathetically.

“I fear so,” he sighed. “But once it is done, it will be quite cool!” His eyes were starting to glow.

“Really? How?”

“Well, on their devices, they will be able to do all the tasks they could do on a normal laptop as well! So they’ll be able to work with all the programmes that they could work with on a normal laptop too! They won’t need an app for every single programme anymore!” He was like an excited kid talking about his new toy.

“Awesome! But how does this work?”

“Well, of course I can’t read the code… But to access our intranet you have to log in to your account. And if you do so via the app it just turns your device into a screen. But all the calculating is still done on one of our computers. Because of that we also had to buy some new high-performance computers!” He smirked.

“Haha, cool! But won’t this also create a lot of work concerning the access rights?”

 “On the contrary! The software has a new access right policy which I find very useful. Meaning that I can give a user the right to administer the access rights of a certain file or a certain file type! And he can hand it down again! So this safes me a lot of work!”

“Wow, you’re right. This is really neat!” I was impressed. “So, how far are you with installing the app?”

“Haven’t even started yet. We’re still installing the software on our normal computers…”

“Ha Neul, could you pass me the water please?” Mom interjected. Somewhere amidst our conversation we had moved to the table because dinner had been served.

“Sounds like you’ll have a lot to do in the near future, then,” I said and handed the water jug to my mom.

“Just don’t overwork yourself! You’ve already gotten thin lately,” she said while looking at her younger brother worriedly and put some more meat into his rice bowl.

“I’m fine, don’t worry!” He assured her.

“You know, you should get yourself an assistant or something,” my mom tried again.

“It’s not that easy. Not everyone is as smart and diligent as your daughter,” he said and winked at me. I smiled and blushed at his compliment.

“Don't compliment her too much…” She smiled. “Ah! But, Ha Neul! Weren’t you looking for a part-time job just recently?”

“Are you?” Uncle Soo Jong cut in before I could answer.

“Uh, yes. Actually I am.”

“Why didn’t you say that earlier?” He exclaimed. “First thing tomorrow I’ll go ask the president if I could have you as my assistant! That is, if you’d like to, of course?”

“Of course, I’d love to!” How could I not?

The next evening, I got a call from Uncle Soo Jong saying that I could start next Monday.

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Sorry, everyone for not updating for so long! >< I've been travelling for a month and thus had to survive without internet...
And then I had to make myself write this boring chapter without a SHINee appearance because it's needed for the storyline TT
But in return I'll uplode the next chapter immediately.